Speaker Baroness May Blood

The Club were delighted to have Baroness May Blood of Blackwatertown in the County of Armagh addressing the Club Monday 06 October. Introducing her President Ronnie noted that she had been working for the underprivileged for many years and is the 1st NI lady to be elevated to the House of Lords. Baroness Blood thanked the Club for her great honour particularly because of the great work that Rotary does not only in Belfast but all over. She talked about her work with the Greater Shankill Partnership and the Early Years programme which with £6.5m received in 1995 from Europe built 3 centres and although the EU money was for 5 years the programme is still going 20 years later as successful as ever, now working with 700 families.

She stressed that for change to happen it has to happen at a young age, there are enormous problems on the ground with 3rd and 4th generations having no interest in education or jobs. She also pointed out that there is still a huge paramilitary problem on the Shankill highlighting that a young child when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up replied "an ex prisoner'.

She concluded that there is amazing work happening on the Shankill and they have a 93% success rate in getting young people they train into work stressing that it is critical to get young people out of bed and back to school and give them a reason for life not only in the Shankill but for Northern Ireland's community- it has to be done! She thanked the Club for its care and support, through the programmes, to schools and people.

President Ronnie thanked Baroness Blood for her most revealing talk and noted that it emphasised the need for the Club to push forward with YouthAction NI.